Hello, In the iEARN network, Arabic conversations and project work is the most active of any non-English language forums. We will be working with local school districts in the US to enhance or create new Arabic language programs and physical exchanges in 2007-2008.
Ed On 8/30/06 3:21 PM, "J Cravens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Helmi Noman is researching the demographics and usage patterns of > Arab Internet users, Arabic Web content, Internet Law, and the > perception of Web Credibility among Arab Internet users. On the > Development Gateway email update today was this highlighted resource > from his web site, and I thought at least some on the Digital Divide > Network would find this interesting and/or helpful: > > http://www.helmionline.com/internet/2005/10/web_content.html > Online forums have rapidly spread as stand-alone web sites in the > Arab world or as part of larger sites. This study, conducted by Helmi > Noman between July and September 2005, examined 338 active Arabic > forums for content quality, quantity, and the technology used to host > and produce it. According to Noman, the rapid spread of Arabic forums > can be attributed to the following common characteristics: Easy and > inexpensive technology, almost all of it powered by vBulletin; > empowerment, in these unmoderated fora; collaborative forums whose > subjects are selected by the forum owner; providing a place to "hang > out"; and encouragement of false identities. Some 27% of forums have > Islam as a subject; politics and current affairs forums (5%); stock > market forums (11%); education forums (1%); science forums (1%); and > computer forums (17%). Forums in this last category constitute a > large virtual information technology academy where professional > computers experts get sophisticated assistance from their peers and > where amateur programmers learn how to develop their skills. This > article, posted on Noman's website, contains graphs and charts > measuring Arab Internet fora. -- IEARN-USA - Connecting Youth Making A difference with Technology http://us.iearn.org _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.